Palm Sunday–the day the Jews welcomed Jesus with cheers and celebration. This is a special day for Christians, the beginning of Holy Week. It’s a bittersweet day on which immediate joy mingles with the knowledge of impending disaster.
This week world leaders met to discuss international security and finances. In difficult times, as President Obama made his initial major foreign journey, these leaders of course postured and positioned and posed for cameras as much as they actually negotiated with each other. That’s just the nature of such events, and nobody’s really surprised by the public antics that probably contrast vividly with the actual private discussions.
I don’t normally pay much attention to these sorts of media-oriented affairs and the commotion that always surrounds them, but this week I shook my head at the violent protests that greeted many of the gatherings. Protests and violence are nothing unique, but this time I perceived a new level of intensity and a heightened ferocity.
People all over the world are frustrated with personal financial circumstances and perceived favoritism toward those who contributed to the problems that have impacted so many. Enormous financial corporations and their executives were targets as angry mobs vented pent-up aggravation.
What impacted me about this violence was the mob mentality. I imagine that most of the individuals involved in acts of vandalism and assault are normally law-abiding citizens of their communities. But when these individuals gather and their grievances are fed into frenzy by a few vocal leaders, they become an entity devoid of individual conscience. They become a mob.
I think that’s why Palm Sunday doesn’t impact me with a sense of celebration. The same mob that lined the streets and welcomed Jesus with shouts of “Hosanna” gathered five days later to demand his execution
How often do I succumb to the same mentality? How often do I simply go with the crowd, praising or jeering in unison with the mob? How frequently do I say or do something in the frenzy of a group that contradicts my personal convictions?
Group-think doesn’t have to involve vandalism or violence. Its influence extends to everyday acts like gossip, hurtful humor, or the simple act of excluding someone who doesn’t fit in.
A popular inspirational quote proclaims, “Character is what you do when nobody’s looking.” That may be true, but there’s also a part of character that’s measured when everybody’s looking. It’s one thing to advocate my convictions in solitude. It’s another thing entirely to hold to those convictions when the mob demands something different.
Holy Week for me this year recalls the power of the mob. I hope I would have been among those palm-bearing greeters on Sunday, but I hope even more that I WOULDN’T have been in the mob that demanded Jesus’ execution.
When have you allowed mob mentality to lead you to a thought or action that conflicts with your personal convictions?
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